Seren Howells reviews the Russian State Ballet of Siberia, accompanied by the Russian State Ballet Orchestra presentation of The Nutcracker at Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on December 21, 2021.
This is now the second ballet I have seen performed by The Russian State Ballet of Siberia at Cardiff’s St David’s Hall this Christmas season and I must say it didn’t disappoint.! The performance of The Nutcracker has put me in the Christmas spirit and the standard of dance was out of this world.
Making incredible use of a projector that shows the location that characters are in and the use of videos of the dancers that were played really help bring magic to the show. Even though there is no set to this performance, the costumes and masks help tell the story, and add so much colour and feeling that you almost forget that you are watching a show.
One thing I love about The Nutcracker is all the little characters that we see and how some portray different areas of the world through Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic and French dance. All the dancers danced beautifully with amazing technique and really emoted the story throughout.
There are many outstanding performances from the ensemble cast. With Matvei Nikishaev as the Mouse King, who played the bad guy amazingly, and then Maksim Ikonostasov as Drosselmeyer whose character brough magic and was moving the performance onwards throughout.
Lastly, you can’t forget about Elena Svinko as Marie and Marcello Pelizzoni as the Nutcracker Prince, both worked very well together to produce dances that just had the audience drawn in and captivated at every moment. Also, there was Aleksandr Kondratev as the Nutcracker Doll who performed well with Svinko to tell the story of the Nutcracker.
A brilliant performance, I would recommend taking your family to see The Nutcracker and get into the Christmas spirit!
- The Nutcracker continues at Cardiff’s St David’s Hall until December 24 2022.
- For full details on Family Tickets, concessions, multi-saver discounts and group bookings, please visit http://www.stdavidshallcardiff.co.uk